Forever To Keep
by TheConjuringMind
Summary: After saving Kat's dad, Dr. Harvey, Casper is rewarded with the gift of life among the living, and has to adjust to this new reality. Meanwhile the crush he's had for Kat begins to grow, as do Kat's feelings for him. Will asking her to the winter dance finally bring the two together? CasperXKat.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Casper.**

* * *

"Can I keep you?" he whispered in her ear, the question sending shivers down Kat's spine as she slowly drew back from him to reveal his face.

The realization to his identity suddenly hitting her, she gazed happily into his eyes, getting lost in his blue orbs.

"Casper?" she inquired.

"In the flesh," he confirmed, beaming from ear to ear.

Kat pulled him close and held him tight.

She couldn't believe he was actually here!

* * *

After Casper got his body back, Kat had been teaching him how to adjust to human life. Having spent the majority of his life as a ghost, there were a lot of things he had to get used to. One of which was the fact that he could no longer phase through objects or walls.

When navigating the house with Kat, he often found himself running into doors and tripping over carpets or furniture. Not at all keeping to mind that he no longer had the ability to phase through them. This didn't bother Kat, however, because it gave her an excuse to grab hold of his hand whenever she wanted, and lace her fingers through his as she 'led him around the house' without causing suspicion in her dad.

Now that Casper was alive and as real as any other boy in her school, things were beginning to progress rather quickly with Kat's and his relationship. What had began as a form of comfort and friendship in yet another new town in which she felt awkward and out of place, soon enough turned into a shy sort of courtship between the two of them.

Though both were too bashful to admit it, their feelings for each other were fairly strong, even if they _did_ try to keep them under Doctor Harvey's dad radar, and it was a shame that neither felt brave enough to act on it.

Until the school's winter dance came around, that is.

The day had started off fairly normal; Kat and Casper went to school, ate lunch with each other in the cafeteria, and walked to Kat's locker (which was on the other end of the hallway from Casper's) to pick up some books she'd left behind for Math class.

Then Darren, one of the school's "pretty boys", approached Kat. And that's when things got a little out of hand.

Darren asked Kat to go to the school dance with him, and though she'd clearly said that she wasn't interested, Darren wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

He grabbed Kat by the arm, and started tugging her towards him, much to her disgust. And though she was fully prepared to clock the kid herself the moment he'd laid hands on her, Casper surprised the both of them when he pulled Darren aside by his collar and started pummeling him.

Though Kat had caught some of Casper's jealous glares towards her other classmates when he'd thought she wasn't looking, she never once thought that he'd go as far as to hit someone over it. And the shock she'd felt when he'd done it was so prominent, that she wasn't sure if she should be proud, or upset about it.

She'd have to admit that making the two of them stay after school in the Principal's office until Kat's father, Dr. Harvey, came to pick them up didn't look good. But was it really all that bad?

Darren, being the one with all the cuts and bruises, not to mention having a rich, busy daddy to boot, got off scott-free. But Casper and Kat, known to the school for being the odd kids out, and supposed "trouble makers", had to stay behind and stick it out for a while longer.

Other than the fact that she and Casper would have to face her father afterward, Kat felt fairly comfortable being left alone in the Principal's office with him when Mr. Glasscott left to get himself a cup of coffee from the teacher's lounge, and Casper gave her an embarrassed apology.

"I'm sorry Kat, I don't know what got into me. I wasn't _trying_ to get you in trouble."

"I know," Kat blushed, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"But that was really brave of you," she told him, looking him in right in his blue eyes as he caressed the only bruise he'd received from Darren with his hand; a small, moon-shaped mark just below his right eye-lid.

"You think?"

He winced slightly at the pain it caused him. Nothing serious, just a minor annoyance. A reminder of his stupidity in thinking that Kat couldn't handle herself, and the result of his brash actions that landed both of them in the Principal's office.

"Here," Kat moved his hand out of the way and gently turned his head towards her, cupping his face in her hands. "Let me see,"

"Kat - " he started before she interrupted him.

"- Casper,"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Why _did_ you hit Darren?"

"What do you mean? He was hurting you, I couldn't just stand by and watch, could I?"

"You _know_ what I mean. You hit him for a reason. A reason _bigger_ than just helping me out. There wasn't perhaps, a _jealously_ reason, was there? Like, because Darren asked me out you _wanted_ to hit him?"

She wasn't sure why she suddenly needed confirmation for Casper's feeling towards her when their liking towards each other was so obvious. But she guessed that somewhere deep down, she wished that Casper had asked her to the winter dance before Darren did, so that she could say that she already had some one to go with. Someone that _she_ liked. Someone that genuinely had feelings for her. Not some pretty boy that just wanted to date around.

"No," Casper said quickly, turning his head away to look out the only window in the room, his cheeks burning red.

"Because if that were true..." Kat trailed off.

"If that were true, what?" Casper asked, whipping his head back around to face her.

"Well..." she tried shyly, looking down and fumbling with the ring she had on her thumb. "I wouldn't mind, is all... I mean, if you wanted to ask me to go to the dance instead, or whatever,"

"Really?" he asked, bringing his face closer to hers, as she slowly began to do the same. Everything surrounding them becoming blurry.

"Yeah,"

"Do you want to?" he inquired, his face only inches from hers.

"Want to what?" she asked, her breath caught in her throat at the short distance between them now.

She'd kissed Casper before, of course. When he'd first gotten his life back that night at her Halloween party. But it wasn't the same. She'd really only thought of him as a friend before. Or at least, she thought she did. She never quite understand her feelings towards him, even then. But now that she they liked each other. Now that _she_ liked _him_ , everything was different.

She _wanted_ to kiss him. She _wanted_ to be with him. And that made her feel all the more nervous and uncertain about herself.

"Go to the dance with me?"

"Yes..."

Kat was near kissing him then, eyes closed and lips parting, when all of the sudden, Dr. Harvey and Mr. Glasscott burst into the room. And both kids pulled away from each other with a jerk, their cheeks as red as beets as they straightened up in their chairs and folded their hands in front of themselves, acting as if nothing had almost ever occurred.

"What's with you two?" Dr. Harvey asked his daughter, looking from her and then to Casper and back and forth.

The Principal looked as equally perplexed; a brow raised and his head tilted as a steady stream of steam rolled off his cup-o'-Joe.

She guessed whether they managed to kiss or not, it didn't matter.

All that mattered was that she was his, and he was hers.

And together they'd have each other forever to keep.


End file.
